Wyoming committee hears push to carve out DAO governance tokens, debates narrowing taxonomy bill

Members of a Wyoming legislative select committee continued work on a proposed digital-assets taxonomy and heard public comment Wednesday on whether the bill should retain a broad set of token definitions or be narrowed to a single governance-token definition. Presenters representing decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) urged the panel to adopt explicit language saying governance tokens represent voting rights and are not securities. Lawmakers debated whether to move forward with a narrow governance token bill or keep the broader taxonomy and asked staff to circulate suggested language for follow-up work.

The matter drew sustained public comment from organizers of the American CryptoFed DAO, who described their organization and urged the committee to make a clear statutory carveout so governance tokens are treated differently from securities. Scott Mueller, listed in testimony as an organizer of American CryptoFed DAO, said the DAO filed with the Wyoming secretary of state on July 1, 2021, and urged that a governance token be defined to represent voting rights rather than shares of ownership. "A governance token is not a security," Mueller said while reading proposed draft language that would expressly declare governance tokens not to be securities.

The committee discussed how to treat "consumptive tokens" and whether consumer protections should be tiered rather than tied to a large catchall category. A presenter identified in the transcript as Brandon (Maher) explained a proposed approach to make consumer-protection obligations apply to a taxonomy that is abstracted from any single federal definition so state rules "come right up to the line but don't cross it," while noting the committee should monitor federal legislation.

Representative Feiler moved to advance only the governance-token definition and delete the rest of the draft; Senator Olson seconded. Committee members debated whether paring the draft would eliminate useful options and whether conforming language would be required for any stand-alone governance definition. The committee voted on the amendment language, which failed in the recorded voice vote. A subsequent motion to table the bill until the next meeting was made and the committee agreed to table the bill and to continue working on the draft in informal meetings.

Why it matters: committee members said clearer, narrower statutory language could give DAO organizers legal certainty needed to distribute governance tokens in Wyoming, while keeping a broader taxonomy could allow the state to prepare for multiple legislative outcomes at the federal level. Committee staff said written suggestions from public commenters would be circulated to members.

The record shows the committee did not adopt final statutory changes and instead instructed staff and members to continue refining definitions, circulate public comments, and consider a narrower governance-token bill as a possible separate draft if needed.